


Eventually

by journalofimprobablethings



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: ? I guess?, Afterlife, Angst, Bittersweet, Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Spoilers for Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, TAZ does the Good Place finale, The Astral Plane, look maybe someday i will post something happy here but it is not this day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27013981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/journalofimprobablethings/pseuds/journalofimprobablethings
Summary: Kravitz tells Magnus, “You… you can’t stay here forever, eventually you’re going to need to join the rest of the souls here, but I’ll make sure you will have as much time as you need.”Kravitz never thought about what he would do when "eventually" finally came.(Magnus and Julia decide to move on, and Kravitz has to come to terms with really saying goodbye.)
Relationships: Julia Burnsides & Kravitz, Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides, Magnus Burnsides & Kravitz
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Eventually

**Author's Note:**

> CW for discussion of death, grief, and loss.
> 
> I love the idea of everyone reuniting at the Burnsides residence in the astral plane, BUT this image wouldn't leave me alone so here it is. I feel like even though Kravitz is a Reaper, living in the astral plane and being friends with mostly immortal people has given him a perhaps skewed vision of Death, and he might not be ready to actually confront what it means to lose someone.
> 
> (Also, in my head Kravitz and Julia have been friends since the end of Crystal Kingdom, just chillin in the astral plane while she builds her house.)

The last time Kravitz visits Julia and Magnus Burnsides, he has just returned from a mission—a rather ridiculous one involving a necromantic cult worshipping a dragon statue which, as far as he could tell, had no actual magic of its own. He is looking forward to the warm familiarity of the cottage, to telling Julia and Magnus the story. It’s become a favorite routine, to visit them when he returns from a job. 

But as soon as he arrives at the cottage, he can tell that something is different.

Julia and Magnus are waiting for him on the edge of the lake. Holding hands.

“Hi, Kravitz,” Magnus says as Kravitz approaches.

“Hi, you two,” Kravitz says. “What’s the word?”

Julia looks up at Magnus, and Magnus squeezes her hand and nods. Then she smiles and turns to Kravitz.

“We’re ready.”

It takes a moment for Kravitz to realize what she means.

“You’re—oh. Oh!" He is startled at how unsteady his voice is. "I see.”

He knew this day would come, eventually. He set the rule himself, in accordance with the Raven Queen’s law. But they have been settled in their comfortable routine for so long; the rhythms of his work, his home with Taako, his visits with Julia and Magnus worn smooth with time and repetition. He had come to believe that when you have eternity to work with, “eventually” could always be just a little ways off.

He never thought about what he would do when it finally arrived.

Kravitz opens his mouth to say something, and closes it again. He should say something profound, he thinks, or pithy. But the only thing he can think to say is _Don’t go_ , and he knows it is too selfish a thought to say out loud.

He knows that, technically, he could bring them out of the lake whenever he wants, the way he has done many times now with Julia. But that felt different—a temporary arrangement, while Julia waited for Magnus. They’ve earned their rest, now, and it doesn’t feel right that he should interrupt it, just because he misses them.

For the first time, Kravitz thinks he understands a little why the people he hunts down do the things they do. Why they fight so hard against death, the natural order of things.

It’s the finality of it, he thinks.

The “never” in “never again”.

Julia—because she has known Kravitz for a long time now, and because she is Julia—notices his distress. She comes over, and takes both his hands in hers.

“Come in for tea first, Kravitz,” Julia says. “Tell us what you’ve been up to.”

And so Kravitz does.

They sit around the scrubbed kitchen table, the room warmly lit by a fire in the hearth and a floating globe of light that Kravitz gifted to them. Magnus makes tea, and Julia brings out a stash of cookies, and Kravitz lets the old bloodhound Johann rest his slobbery head on his lap. Kravitz tells them the story of his day, and Julia and Magnus tell him the story of theirs.

In its individual trappings, it is no different from hundreds of other evenings he has spent in this cottage. But Kravitz knows that he will tuck this memory away someplace safe, something he can take out to warm himself on days when the world seems particularly cold and hard.

And eventually, the tea is drunk, and the cookies are eaten, and Johann is asleep in his bed by the fire.

“Well,” Kravitz says. “I think it’s time for you two to hit the road. So to speak.”

They head outside. Kravitz and Magnus shake hands, then Magnus pulls Kravitz into a bone-crushing hug.

“Don’t let Taako push you around too much,” Magnus says.

“Oh, I think there’s little I can do about that.”

They laugh.

Kravitz turns to Julia. They are standing on the beach at the edge of the lake, just as they did the first time he brought her out to give her Magnus’s message, so so long ago. Julia takes his hand, and smiles, and she reaches up and kisses him on the cheek.

“Thank you, Kravitz. For everything.”

Kravitz’s chest swells with an emotion he can’t name, so full that he can’t speak.

It’s the feeling, he realizes, that he gets sometimes when he’s watching Taako cook, and Taako’s so absorbed in the task that he forgets to show off. It’s the feeling he got while Angus was growing up, when every time he saw him it seemed the boy detective had grown another inch. It’s a feeling that is happy and sad all at once: love for these people and gratitude for this moment and grief that they can't just stay in it, just a little longer.

It’s a feeling that is too big for his chest to contain.

After a long moment, Kravitz finds his voice.

“You’re very welcome, Julia.”

And then Julia returns to Magnus, and takes his hand. They share one last long look, and then the step into the lake, hand in hand. And where they stood, there are now two balls of light, their glow reflecting off the surface of the water. And the lights hover just for a moment, before lowering, together, to join the rest.

* * *

Kravitz keeps the cottage on the island.

He doesn’t go inside often, but it makes him smile when he sees it as he passes over the lake, makes him feel warm inside in a way that has nothing to do with body temperature. That feeling that seems too large for his chest to contain.

Occasionally, when the day has been especially hard, or Taako has done something especially ridiculous, Kravitz will stop by the cottage. It is as warm and cozy as ever inside, the polished wood and flowered cushions as bright as the day Julia and Magnus left.

He prepares himself tea, heating the water in the bright red kettle on the stove. And he sits at the scrubbed wooden table, and sips his tea, and remembers.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! If you want to come yell about TAZ with me on tumblr, I'm over there at [journalofimprobablethings](https://journalofimprobablethings.tumblr.com)


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